The present invention relates to a method of communication in a network.
The invention is in the field of wireless networks. These networks may be highly centralized, have one base station which manages the whole network and allocates network access to the various members, or else may be more distributed, that is to say that the decisions about network access are the result of one or more terminals deciding the rights of network access for themselves or for the others.
These networks have in common the fact of having a channel for network management information, sometimes called the “beacon channel”, and a channel for the user information, carrying data known as “payload data”. The beacon channel is normally managed by the base station, which is in principle connected to a wired network of telephone or data type. The terminal is capable of transmitting a certain amount of information to the base station, in order to describe its own situation in relation to the network.
The commencement of the existence of a wireless network, on switching on the elements which make it up, is generally characterized by the presence of a beacon channel. Usually, this beacon channel is attributed to a base station which is an access point to a wired network.
Among the existing systems, i.e. principally systems conforming to the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) standard or to variants of it, two main categories may be identified: either a base station or an access point begins to transmit over a beacon channel as soon as it is turned on, or a mobile terminal that is turned on detects the lack of a beacon channel and declares itself to be a base station, whether or not it is an access point.
However, such systems are not relevant in the case where the network under consideration is a mixed network, that is to say having a wired part and a wireless part, where the access points are multiple and linked to the same wired network. Such a mixed network is shown in FIG. 1. The references MT0 and MT1 in the Figure represent mobile terminals and AP0, AP1, and AP2 represent access points linked to the same wired network.